Today in Tech News Digest, Nintendo admits the Wii U has failed, Chrome extensions are loaded with adware, the China Operating System is revealed, Paramount dumps 35mm film, Windows 8 is condemned as the new Vista, and Amazon wants to become the Nostradamus of online shopping.

Nintendo Wii U Failure, Future

Nintendo has admitted the Wii U4 Reasons The Wii U Will Fail [Opinion]4 Reasons The Wii U Will Fail [Opinion]While there is no sign yet of a PS4 or Xbox 720 (not likely to be the real names when they do finally arrive), we do have one next-generation games console on the horizon to...Read More is a complete and utter failure, announcing an operating loss for the current financial year and lowering its sales forecasts for the console by 70 percent (from 9 million to 2.8 million). This is the third year in a row Nintendo has experienced an operating loss, and the company’s stock price tumbled on the news.

This all suggests there are tough times ahead for Nintendo, but there are signs the company is finally ready to change things up in an effort to reverse its fortunes. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata stated, “We are thinking about a new business structure. Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business. It’s not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.”

Many analysts and pundits are suggesting it is that easy, and that Nintendo should embrace the opportunity smartphones and tablets offer. This means that like Sega before it, Nintendo could stop making hardware in order to concentrate on licensing its games to other companies. Such a move seems inevitable, certainly outside of Japan.

Chrome Extensions Hit With Adware

It seems a handful of Google Chrome extensions are being hijacked for adware. This is according to a first-hand account by Amit Agarwal, who sold his ‘Add to Feedly’ extension only to find that the next update for it injected adware on all Web pages.

Ars Technica suggests that ‘Tweet This Page’ is another Chrome extension that was hit in a similar way. Google isn’t responsible for any of this, but its practice of pushing silent automatic updates out to users with no checks and balances allows this to occur.

China Reveals Mobile Operating System

The Chinese government has revealed its mobile operating system, the catchily-titled China Operating System (COS). COS has reportedly been designed to work on all devices, from PCs to smartphones, from tablets to set-top boxes. Its raison d’être being to “break the foreign monopoly” that currently exists.

The team behind COS were quick to criticize the existing mobile operating systems, condemning iOS as a “closed ecosystem,” Android for its “fragmentation problem,” and Windows OS for its “poor security.”

This is China’s second attempt at creating a mobile operating system, with the OPhone completely failing to take off in a big way. And if the skepticism and outright hostility to COS is anything to go by then it’s unlikely this attempt will fare any better.

Paramount Switches From Film To Digital

Paramount Pictures to dump film? (The physical medium, this is not my coded review of Jack Ryan) http://t.co/EU2xHsiueE

Paramount Pictures has reportedly become the first studio to commit entirely to digital, with Anchorman 2 having been the last film it will release on 35mm film, at least in the U.S. This hasn’t been officially announced, but the Hollywood movie studio has informed theaters of its decision.

If confirmed, then other studios are likely to follow suit. The suggestion is that many want to switch from 35mm film to digital, but none wanted to be the first to show their hand. Around eight percent of theaters in the U.S. aren’t yet capable of showing films released in the digital format, so this move is of some consequence.

Windows 8 = The New Vista

It’s not news that many people hate Windows 8 with a passion (the NSFW video embedded above showing why this is so). However, if Paul Thurrott of SuperSite for Windows is to be believed, even Microsoft employees aren’t fans of the operating system.

Thurrott suggested in the tweet below that Windows 8 is regarded as “the new Vista” inside Microsoft, later adding that this is because of “sales and market acceptance.” In other words, Windows 8 has failed to win the public over in any conceivable way.

“Can we call Windows 8 the new Vista? Not so fast, analyst says.” Call it what you want. That’s what they call it inside of Microsoft.

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January 24, 2014 at 2:58 am

Windows 8 is more like the new Bob. It's a stupid kindergarten OS unsuitable for laptops and desktops but perfect for the "new" market of tablets and the ironically-named "smart"phones. Smart in what way, exactly? They're basically Game Boys with call and text capabilities -- I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't jumped in and made its own! What idiot came up with the idea to put M$' version of iOS/Macintosh At Ease on "normal" computers? Steve Buttbalmer, perhaps? Getting rid of the Start menu was a boner move too. The menu interface has been part of every Macintosh product M$ has ever ripped off since, what, 1983? 30 years of not being broke, so WHY "FIX " IT? Jesus H. Chrysler, even Apple didn't make such a dumb decision as to put iOS on the MacBook! You still have the trademark Apple menu that's been around since f*king LISA. Somewhere Jobs is ROFLing in his grave at the idiocy of his rival.
I am so glad I was able to find a Win7 machine at Newegg after the screen broke on my other one. I could have just replaced the screen but it would have cost more than buying another computer. The only other alternative would have been to buy a $300 junk heap at Wal-Mart, then go into the stupid Lucky Charms menu and disable EFI so I could wipe the hard drive and install a copy of Win7 that I'd have to pirate because you can't even buy them off the shelves anymore. (Magically failicious.) Microsoft should have called it quits with (ahem) "System 7" (yeah, can't wait for Windows OSX Lolcat) and just released an SP2, rather than spending any time on this crap. Problem is, the butt-ugly "flat surface" infinite-scrolling Windows 8 design has infected everything else on the Internet like the plague -- including Hotmail (now "Outlook"? Seriously?), Yahoo, Google and even Make Use Of! I don't know what I'm going to do when nobody releases desktop OSes anymore and everything moves to the Google Cloud. Move into Kaczynski's old house and use the Olivetti typewriter OS, I suppose.

Windows 8 has garnered the same reaction when Windows 95 came out, due to major changes in OS design, yet later on loads of people loved it
Also, at worst for Nintendo, they'll just discontinue the Wii U and just go handheld only because the 3ds is making a lot of money AT WORST. They are not going to just go software only due to one console failure, they need to be failing for a long time to do that, like in both handheld and console failure.

The thing is smartphones aren't going anywhere, and they're getting more powerful all the time. So while the 3DS is doing just fine, the longterm strategy has to geared towards getting software on as many devices as possible.

I don't want to say all chrome apps and extensions need to be validated but its starting to look that way. The Apple app store is a pain in the ass sometimes but everything that comes out of it is safe and can be trusted. I think chrome is going to have to at least warn users when they are installing extensions that have not been validated.

I didn't like Windows 8, but I use Windows 8.1 like I used Windows 7. I boot to the desktop, pin my most used programs to the taskbar and have my other used programs as shortcuts on the desktop. I use the Metro interface as a fancier version of the Windows 7 Start menu (which I rarely used anyway). Windows 8.1 seems faster on my PC than Windows 7, so I'm happy overall.

The Chinese Government is criticising a closed system? That seems just a tiny bit hypocritical to me.

Of course Windows 8 is the new Vista, just like Vista was the new ME, and Windows 10 will be the new Windows 8. It's a cycle that Microsoft has experienced since it's first release with a GUI. The successful releases rise out of the ashes of the previous one, and Microsoft needs the failures because they are the systems with the groundbreaking changes.

It's something I've been saying for a while. The dud releases are the ones that push the envelope, try everything, and change everything. The next release is always very similar, feature-wise, but it is always far more stable, it builds on what works, and it removes what doesn't work.
The dud releases also help to introduce people to the differences. When something drastic changes, the first reaction is to hate it, which evolves into hate of the system in general. By the time the next release comes along, the change has become standard, and may have been copied by other companies, so people are more accepting.

Dave Parrack is a journalist from the UK. Growing up at a time when the internet was blossoming inspired his fascination with technology. With 10 years experience writing online, he's currently the Tech News writer and Entertainment editor at MakeUseOf. You can follow him at About.me.